STRESS

STRESS!
Our Physiological and Emotional Responses To It
By: Gwenn Henkel, CMH, MH.
Master Hypnotherapist
Peninsula Woman Magazine June 2002

It seems to me lately that most of my clients want to see me about finding ways to better handle stress. Not everyone is affected in a stressful situation the same way another may be. Everything is relevant, and in the perception of each individual. No two people will see something in the exact same way.

For instance, I have just recently started seeing people down in the San Luis Obispo area. My cousin Kandy lives down there and I love it there. It is my place to go to relax and get away from it all. Kandys chiropractor, Dr. Carmen, has become a client of mine recently, and she had told her patients about the work that I do here in the bay area. Well it seems that many of her clients in San Luis Obispo and also Santa Barbara (she has an office there also) wanted to have a chance to see me too. She offered her office to me so I could see her patients if I would come for a week. Well of course I did!

I couldnt wait to have the opportunity to visit my favorite place AND see clients too! I realized that this is just the opportunity that I needed in order to eventually make that transition to move my practice down there and get away from the high stress area that we live in here.moving down to the country as I think of it. Kandy has always been the Country Cousin and I am the City Cousin. Funny if you think about it though, I live in Belmont, which isnt exactly the CITY life, but it is compared to her area and I am after all, only 30 minutes from San Francisco. Now thats the city!

I pretty much assumed that those people who wanted to see me would want help with perhaps chronic pain control, since I specialize in that and because after all, they are patients of a chiropractor. The majority wanted help with STRESS REDUCTION! Oh my goodness! These people who live in the country have STRESS? This is the place I want to go to get away? Its all relevant isnt it? Its all in our own perception of things.

We must keep in mind that some stress can be good for you, such as the anticipation of a raise at work or reward of some sort. Even the butterflies- in- the- tummy because of a new love in your life, but that is a good feeling.

We are the creators of our thoughts and we feel the way that we think. It is important to be aware of what we let our thoughts dwell on. If we are ill, it seems that how we feel is all that we can focus on. If our job is a hectic and has deadlines, our minds focus on that even when we are at home.

Maybe even certain people we work with or even those we are related to are extremely draining to us and those people completely change our own energy when they are around us.

There are actually many general causes of stress, from resentment, emotional issues, diet deficiency, noise, depression, Type-A personality, pain, fatigue, PMS, or repressed emotions just to name a few. But no matter what, you will probably find that your stress falls into one of these categories.

So how does one effectively make changes so that their body does not have to react in physiological ways? Actually it really isnt all that difficult if you are using some simple tools and learn to recognize your triggers and your responses. That is where hypnosis comes in.

Hypnosis is a very natural state of mind and you are in that state from 50-80% of your day. It is very handy then to be able to utilize this natural ability to your advantage. With the guidance of a professional as myself, you will pinpoint your causes of stress and then find a place in your mind that you will go with your imagination, a place that will be a positive and relaxing place. Because your subconscious mind does not know the difference between what is real and not real, you can even have a make-believe place to go in your mind, and it will work just as well.

This place will become what is called an anchor for you. The subconscious will believe that you are truly on a beautiful beach on a warm sunny day or in a meadow filled with wild flowers if you think about it in the relaxed state of hypnosis. And this state of hypnosis is merely being relaxed once your eyes are closed. Just closing your eyes can initiate this relaxed state, and your body will automatically begin to respond to your calming thoughts of your special place. You may even use another anchor such as bringing your thumb and index finger together to touch while thinking of the special place. There are many options. After the repetition of listening to the personalized CD that I would make for you, your mind learns to respond to the thoughts of your special place instantly. The important thing here is that your mind is learning to do this CHANGE on your command. It only takes a split second to change your mind when you notice a stressful situation coming on and you change your reaction to being calm in that situation.

I was just reading an article in the Harvard Mental Health Letter today on the immune system and the mind. Experimental studies are being done to show how stress affects people who are already ill with cancer and other immune suppressed conditions such as HIV. It says that it is commonly believed that the mind acting through the immune system has the power to prevent or promote the development of cancer and enhance or reduce the capacity to reduce it. It went on to say that hypnotherapy is one very good way to achieve this kind of result.

I had an occasion to work with a woman who had 5 cysts on her ovaries. Her doctor had been watching them for two years. He finally decided to just remove them surgically. She became very stressed about the thought of having surgery.

She also happened to be my personal assistant and she asked me if we could do something with hypnosis to change this condition so as to avoid surgery. Of course I told her it would have been nice to have more than two weeks to do this work, but I was willing to try if she was. We began visualization work right away. I made a tape for her to listen to daily, seeing the cysts shrinking down and leaving the body. The day before her surgery, her doctor examined her to find that all 5 cysts were gone! He remembered she had told him that she was going to try some alternative work in the meantime before surgery. He asked what she had done. She explained to him that she had done hypnosis and saw the cysts becoming smaller and leaving her system through her urine. He was amazed! Surgery was cancelled.

So no matter where we live or what is going on in our lives, stress is always going to be a factor that we are faced with on a daily basis. Learning to control how our bodies respond to stressful situations is a very empowering thing and enhances our lives in so many ways. Hypnosis is a very powerful tool to use and something that is so easy to do.

Learn how Hypnosis can help you:

Change Your Life by Changing Your Mind! TM

Gwenn Henkel is a Certified Medical Hypnotherapist, Hypnoanesthesiologist, and Master Hypnotherapist. She is a member of The National Board for Hypnotherapy and Hypnotic Anaesthesiology, the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists, The American Board of Hypnotherapy, and The International Association of Counselors and Therapists.

Gwenn also belongs to one of the most highly recognized organizations for Certified Hypnotherapists in the world, the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association®. She is a proud to be a member in good standing of this organization. As a Referral Service of Certified Hypnotherapists, the IMDHA has been influential in furthering the education of Hypnotists and Hypnotherapists around the world for more than two decades. For more information on aligning yourself with this prestigious organization you may reach them at http://www.imdha.com or email: info@imdha.com

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